After CU, VB profs move HC over EC’s election duty order

Kolkata: After the assistant professors of Calcutta University got relief from the role of presiding officers, several Visva-Bharati faculty members approached Calcutta High Court on Monday after around 50 of them were show-caused by the EC for skipping poll-related work training.The EC, too, approached the Calcutta High Court division bench on Monday, challenging the order passed by Justice Krishna Rao that quahed the deployment order of assistant professors in the role of presiding officers of polling stations.A brief hearing took place before Justice Rao. While the Visva-Bharati faculty members' counsel relied on the CU professors' order, the EC informed that the same was challenged on Monday.It was argued that the apex court has consistently held that high courts should not entertain petitions under Article 226 questioning the election process once a notification is issued. To this, senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya interjected: "That's in a different context." The EC counsel further submitted a notification of 2023. Justice Rao told the EC counsel: "I gave you three opportunities and now you are bringing this?"According to the VB faculty members, 104 of them were appointed as micro-observers on March 19 and they attended their first phase of training. However, by April 11 notice, they were "abruptly" redesignated as presiding officers, without notice or hearing. "The redesignation mechanically covers the entire academic hierarchy, demonstrating total absence of rank-sensitive consideration," the faculty members claimed in their petition.It was stated that after having been first treated as officers suitable for supervisory and confidence-based micro-observer duties through the March 19 order, the EC could not have, without disclosing fresh material, downgrade 104 petitioners en masse to polling station operational assignments as presiding officers. "Such self-contradictory administrative conduct amounts to approbation and reprobation in the same election process, and independently demonstrates manifest non-application of mind," the petition reads. After they refused to join as presiding officers, a show-cause was served to them on April 17.A professor said: "I received training for micro-observer duty but suddenly I was assigned presiding officer duty. It is difficult to suddenly switch from micro-observer to presiding officer duty without two rounds of training. It seems like there was no proper planning."
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